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8/10 Extras Very amusing commentary from Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Eric Saward. Peter leads the way, talking fondly and with authority about the making of the episode. They lament the fact that the Concorde interior scenes were all done on the ground and point to some of the worst examples of the special effects and wonder if modern technology couldn’t do something about it. 10/10 Mouth on Legs – Janet Fielding talks about her character, Tegan, how she was cast in the role and the development of the character through the seasons. 10/10 Deleted Scenes. The first of them is a piece of good stock footage showing the emergency services racing along the runway at Heathrow. Another is a horrible CSO picture of the TARDIS hovering over the runway. There is a longer scene with the air traffic controller explaining what happened from his point of view and the airport manager becoming frustrated. Some more elaborate scenes with the Xeraphim were also cut, which might have been better left in to explain what they were about. 10/10 Jurassic Larks – studio recordings from the episode. The trouble
it took to get Peter Davison into the sideways on TARDIS while three
stagehands held the doors up inside gives a unique insight into the
unglamorous world of TV, as do a selection of green screen scenes
and problems with a wobbly plane leg that clearly isn’t holding
up a REAL plane. Not to mention getting the foam monsters in position
for that scene with the Concorde crews. The dry ice and polystyrene
effect is very well explained – an amazingly low tech effect
that looks quite effective. It is interesting to learn that the screens
in the aircraft control centre were actually tv screens with a film
of air traffic diagrams running. This is something that would now
be done as CGI. But presumably every film about aeroplanes or air
traffic controllers made in the 1970s and 1980s would have be 10/10 Outtakes – gaffs, pratfalls corpsing and bits of the console coming off. 10/10 Interview with Peter Grimwade. A 1987 interview with the late writer of this story in which he defends what has been a much criticised story as Well as pointing to its finer points. Sometimes static with Grimwade sitting on a sofa answering questions to an off camera interviewer. And it is just a bit too short for real interest. 9/10 The 1983 Doctor Who Annual (DVD ROM) Always fun. 10/10 Radio Times Listings (DVD ROM) Limited interest. Nice to know what else was on TV. 8/10 Production Subtitles add another dimension to the behind the scenes knowledge of the episode. 10/10 Photo Gallery. Mostly black and white pictures for promotional purposes and some photos of the cast at Heathrow. 9/10 Not a bad package altogether
10/10 Extras
10/10 Anti Matter from Amsterdam. A documentary presented by Sophie Aldred who visits many of the locations and interviews with Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sarah Sutton among others. 10/10 The Omega Factor is a documentary focussing on the character of Omega, with interviews with Stephen Thorne who played Omega in The Three Doctors, his first appearance, and with Ian Collier who played him in Arc of Infinity. 10/10 Deleted Scenes. – Mostly short pieces that extend scenes that were broadcast. Cut purely for time restrictions. 10/10 Under the Arc Lights - Behind the scenes footage of the studio filming. Problems with getting the negative image of Omega into the right position, replacing the batteries in his head, changing the heads as the transformation of Omega takes place, CGI effects – an option to view the original special effects replaced by modern CGI. Not for purists! Continuities. The announcements at the start and finish of the episodes. Limited interest. 8/10 Photo Gallery – lots of scenes of The Doctor and friends in
Amsterdam. 9/10 Isolated music score. Very nice apart from the Tulips from Amsterdam motif. 9/10 Radio Times Billings. (DVD ROM) Limited historical interest. 8/10 1983 Doctor Who Annual. Same as on Time Flight.
Production Subtitles provide a more detailed and serious insight into the technical details than the commentary from the actors. 10/10 Coming soon trailer for The Time Warrior. 10/10 A very enjoyable DVD package. The commentary alone makes it worth buying.
10 out of 10. |
Time
Flight is an episode with some flaws and some brilliant bits. Brilliant
is the way the real footage of Concorde is so well used to give the
impression that real flight is taking place. Not so brilliant are
the CSO effects, the overuse of long shots of all the characters standing
in a line and the pointlessness of The Master’s Kalid disguise.
Other than that it’s quite a brilliant story about planeloads
of people dragged through a time contour to work as slaves for The
Master as he hatches yet another plot to take over the world/galaxy/universe.
It has a wonderful scene with The Doctor at Heathrow airport pulling
rank on the airport authorities and that scene where he climbs into
the TARDIS while it is on its side in Concorde – which is really
smaller on the inside than the outside. He really looks as if he is
struggling with a floor that is now a wall as he reaches the console.
en
done that way. An informative set of scenes for those who like to
know how it is done.
Arc
of infinity sees Tegan searching Amsterdam for her missing cousin,
while The Doctor and Nyssa are summoned back to Gallifrey. There,
The Doctor is condemned to death as the only way to prevent the anti-matter
creature that used to be the Time Lord Omega from bonding with him
and taking over Gallifrey and the matrix. It combines the best of
wide open location filming with studio sets that try to bring a little
of the glory of Gallifrey to life, though the fact that the High Council
shop for their furniture at MFI is all too obvious. The scene where
The Doctor is ‘executed’ is highly emotional no matter
how often you see it. And don’t forget, this is the one where
Colin Baker as Commander Maxil gets to shoot The Doctor.
Commentary
by Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Colin Baker. The
first half of the first commentary is fine commentary by Peter and
Sarah. Then Colin and Janet join them and it is a comedy riot. Colin
tells an anecdote about the helmet he was forced to carry because
he was too tall to get through the doors with it on, and about Paul
Jericho, guest star playing the Castellan, who mistook him for a runner
and demanded coffee. Colin spends the entire commentary mentioning
coffee every time Paul appears on screen and making chicken noises
whenever his helmet is seen. In between they also manage to talk about
the making of the episode, including some interesting detail about
the Amsterdam location shooting among ordinary shoppers and visitors
to the city. 
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